On the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, over 5,000 people from all communities came together to march on Michigan
Avenue in Chicago. Demonstrators demanded an immediate end to the war and occupation.
The ranks of the march were filled with youth and students and many first time protestors. Their energy and militancy spread throughout the march and helped to make the action a powerful show of resistance to the warmongers in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of students walked out of class earlier in the day to protest the war.
The march was led by anti-war soldiers and their families.
Over 100 organizations helped build the demonstration, including the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) in Chicago. In the month before the march, ANSWER volunteers handed out 30,000 leaflets and distributed thousands of stickers and posters to promote the protest.
The protest received widespread coverage in the local media.
ANSWER Chicago organized a contingent with large anti-war banners, Iraqi and Palestinian flags and placards that said, “U.S. out of Iraq! Stop the war machine!” The most popular chant was, “No justice, no peace! U.S. out of the Middle East!”
Over 100 hundred people, mostly young, joined the ANSWER contingent at its height. The contingent expressed solidarity with the people of the Middle East and around the world who are fighting against U.S. dominance.
Heather Beneno, an organizer with ANSWER Chicago, said, “Tonight’s march in Chicago, the March 17 March on the Pentagon, and all the other recent marches around the country and around the world against the Iraq war are a sign of what is to come. People are fed up with the aggression and the lies and the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on this murderous war on the Iraqi people. Young people made a strong showing at all the recent demonstrations. They will be the driving force behind a people’s movement in the U.S. that will not stop until the war machine is shut down.”
